Adam on the Web

When I was with Aptima, we maintained a press page. It was cool seeing our name in the news, but I just didn’t have as much invested in the products mentioned as I do in BatchBook. Well, I’ve been populating our press page now. It would totally be tacky if I wrote about some of the sweet press we’ve been getting on the BatchBlog. But here… here I can totally be tacky and not worry about it at all.

BatchBlue is aimed at what I think is the most exciting part of the emerging market for web-based applications, Small businesses and sole proprietorships that have been slow to adopt technologies but which have viable positions in their markets and communities.

In contemporary terms such entities are called “microbusinesses.” However despite their diminutive title, it’s a huge category (20 million nationwide) and an underserved market. And, while Intuit tries to serve this market with product like QuickBooks there have been few attempts to offer this wide market CRM, sales and task tracking software.

Many have told me it is a crowded market, but I’m glad that Jim can see we’re really going for an underserved portion of that larger market.

Customization is the key, the company points out, because no two small businesses are the same, and requirements vary widely by industry. The contact management needs of the hundreds of thousands (millions?) of micro-businesses out there (meaning fewer than 25 employees) are all over the map. And most are simply not being served by the usual CRM suspects. BatchBook has a simple address-book interface (a very clean, simple UI) that you tag and categorize, and you also customize it for your unique business needs. What may be the best thing of all is you can “build relationships between these records.” BatchBook is actually a contact manager, a communications manager, and a task manager all in one. This online app is available now on a free trial basis, then it’s only $9.95 per month. Again, I say well worth it — bring it on!

When CRM is too heavy and customer list management is too light, BatchBlue hopes their BatchBook product might be the “just right” solution. BatchBook is a customizable online contact organizer. It allows the user to create records and lists and then add tags to help make the information more useful from an indexing or relational perspective.

Ah, “relational”. The term that may be too techy for our marketing but really explains the contact management in BatchBook perfectly.

This golden nugget came to me, today, as I was searching for new and unique content. I have seen a lot of CMS [contact management solutions] projects in the past and very few have caught my eye. This one does! It’s visually pleasant, simple to use and has the features and functions needed for any person or small business owner. This company is currently in beta [beta = testing period]. I am certain that I will be “gratefully” surprised when they add modules and plug-ins, which, I can imagine that they are “working on” in coding rooms over at Batchbook.

I envision that this company will be purchased by a “big player” in the Internet space; that is, if they are not, already! If you are smart, you will sign up for this CMS software provider.

…

This website software is a perfect solution for the small business owner or individual starting out in business. Batchbook is brilliant to go after the small business owner in the CMS internet space. Consider yourself lucky to have seen this one.

Mom? Is that you?

Seriously. I feel the same was as Steve. Some of the best feedback we received at DEMO was from sole proprietors that were interested in BatchBook for their own personal use. I’m using it now for my contact management (which provides me great insight on what features to add, UIs to change, etc.).

And last but not least, the morning we were set BatchBook out into the real world the Providence Business News published a piece called “A coming-out party in San Diego” by David Ortiz (no, not that one). I won’t quote that one here… I’ll stop now before drowning you with BatchBook praise.

So, I’ll apologize if this post was a bit on the “Go me!” side. I’m just really excited about where we are headed and needed to tell someone.